In view of space saving, in recent years, there is widely used a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or a field emission display, in place of a cathode ray tube (CRT) display. Such a flat panel display is required to be further thinned. In particular, the OLED display is required to allow easy carrying by being folded or wound, and to allow use not only on a flat surface but also on a curved surface. Thus, thinning of the OLED display is inevitably needed.
Further, it is not limited to only the display to be required to allow the use not only on a flat surface but also on a curved surface. For example it is also required to form a solar cell or an OLED lighting, on a surface of a product having a curved surface, such as a surface of a vehicle body of an automobile or a roof, a pillar, or an outer wall of a building.
Therefore, various glass plates including the flat panel display are required to be further thinned for satisfying a demand for flexibility high enough to deal with a curved surface. As disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1, a film-like sheet glass having a thickness of 200 μm or less has been developed.
Meanwhile, in view of ensuring flexibility, a resin film may be used in place of a glass plate. However, there is a problem in that the resin film is inferior to the glass plate in gas barrier property. In a case of the OLED display, a light-emitting body to be used is deteriorated due to contact with gas, such as oxygen or water vapor, and hence the resin film inferior in barrier property cannot be used in place of the glass plate. Further, for the same reason, also in a field other than the OLED display, the resin film cannot be used in place of the glass plate in many cases. Therefore, also in view of ensuring the barrier property described above, thinning of the glass plate takes on increasing importance in actual use.
However, when the glass plate is thinned into a film, i.e., a so-called glass film, breakage is more liable to occur. Consequently, a package form used for transportation or the like becomes a major issue. Specifically, as an ordinary package form for a sheet glass, there are known a package form (see Patent Literature 2, for example) in which glass plates and protective sheets are packaged while being alternately propped at a predetermined angle on a pallet including a back surface portion, and a package form (see Patent Literature 3, for example) in which glass plates and protective sheets are packaged while being alternately and horizontally stacked on a pallet. However, when the above-mentioned package forms are adopted to the glass film, the following problems arise.
That is, when adopting the former package form, there is a problem in that it is extremely difficult to maintain a posture in the propped state due to flexibility of the glass film. Further, even if the glass film can be propped, there is a problem in that the glass film easily breaks due to its extreme bending or concentration of stress applied on a very fragile lower end portion of the glass film.
In contrast, when adopting the latter package form, load of all glass films situated on an upper side is applied to glass films situated on a lower side, and hence there is a problem in that the glass films situated on the lower side easily break.
Note that, when glass films are packaged while being stacked in horizontal postures in an up-and-down direction, as disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 4, there may be adopted a package form in which glass plates are stacked in the up-and-down direction at intervals. However, in this package form, the glass films need to be placed so that the glass plates are placed in a straddling manner on a plurality of support members arranged in parallel in a horizontal direction at intervals, and hence the package form is not suitable for packaging the glass film having flexibility. That is, the glass film has flexibility, and hence it is difficult to place the glass film in a straddling manner on the support members, and placing of the glass film forces a complicated operation. Further, even if the glass film can be placed, all load of the glass film is supported only by contact portions with the support members, and hence stress is concentrated on the supported portions of the glass film so that the glass film may break. Further, the glass film is bent downward due to its self-weight, and hence the glass film situated on the upper side may be held in direct contact with the glass film situated on the lower side, to thereby cause breakage.
Therefore, for the package form for a glass film, it is desired to develop an appropriate package form for a glass film, which is different from ordinary package forms for a sheet glass. In this context, for example, Patent Literature 5 discloses a new package form (hereinafter, referred to as glass roll) in which a composite film is wound into a roll together with an intermediate layer, the composite film including a glass film and a polymer layer coated on an entire one-side surface of the glass film. This package form is made focusing on flexibility of the glass film, and has various advantages such as achieving space saving, and hence the package form is focused as an appropriate package form for a glass film.